Gil W. Stafford’s sister has Prader-Willi Syndrome, a genetic condition that gives rise to learning difficulties, physical challenges and affects the ability to communicate verbally. She is an artist with her own special outlook on both the inner and outer world of the human condition. In this extraordinary book, MEDITATIONS ON BLUE JESUS–using Dinah’s words and art alongside family journals, Stafford offers a prism by which the reader can both celebrate and investigate Dinah’s perspective.

As Stafford writes in his introduction, “I, in no way, want to trivialize Dinah’s circumstances. And I definitely do not want to sentimentalize her condition. To do so would distract from what she has to say.” With compassion and personal insight Stafford recounts key stages of his sister’s life with each chapter taking its shape based around one of Dinah’s paintings. The paintings are reproduced in color and are certainly striking, most notably the “Blue Jesus” from which the book takes its name, though they are frustratingly small reproductions that don’t really do full justice to the images. Triggered by thoughts initiated by Dinah’s art and interpretations of her reduced verbal communication, Stafford positions his sister amongst the mystics and visionaries. Placing her in the tradition of the likes of Hilma af Klint and Hildegard of Bingen. “Dinah’s truth lives within the sphere of Silence,” he writes, “Silence is the singular most powerful form of communication. Out of Dinah’s Silence, an art has been reborn, an art that has revealed a portal into the Not, Not.” This “Not, Not” is Stafford’s term for the idea of the Cosmic Consciousness with its root in a phrase that Dinah uses to answer questions to which she has no ready answer: “I not, not know.” As in, she doesn’t know but she simultaneously doesn’t not know. Likewise Stafford admits that he and his readers can never really fully know his sisters experience, but by looking deeply it is possible to learn that it is meaningless to label things in binary terms like normal or abnormal.

MEDITATIONS ON BLUE JESUS is perhaps unique in the way that it explores the life/work of a neurodivergent artist from the perspective of a family insider rather than that of a therapist or art historian. While the problematic term “outsider artist” is increasingly falling out of use, the term “visionary artist” has gained popularity. Dinah’s paintings would indeed fit within that definition.
The author is a priest who has written previous books on spiritual subjects. His starting position is one of faith and beyond the biographical information much of the book is concerned with esoteric subjects and theological/ philosophical quandaries. And it is not always an especially easy read. Sometimes Stafford drifts along tangled paths that are difficult to track but there are revelations that wander around many corners and it is well worth the reader’s patient perseverance in following the author’s journey as he is guided by his sister and her art.

Contemplative and inspirational, Gil W Stafford’s MEDITATIONS ON BLUE JESUS offers an intimate look at the life and art of a remarkable artist living with a genetic condition. By widening his focus beyond simply discussing the selected paintings, the author (and artist’s brother) provides an holistic view of his sister, her life and his part in it. The book is a joy.

~Kent Lane for IndieReader